The present invention generally relates to application program grouping methods and apparatuses, and more particularly to an application program grouping method and an application program grouping apparatus which dynamically specify a combination or group of application programs which carry out a process by linking the application programs in a multi-window system which can simultaneously execute, in parallel, a plurality of application programs having conversational or interactive windows.
In the multi-window system, it is possible to simultaneously execute, in parallel, a plurality of application programs (hereinafter simply referred to as "applications") which have mutually independent formats. In such a multi-window system, a process is often carried out by linking the applications. In this specification, the process which is carried out by linking the applications will be referred to as an "inter-application link".
A circuit design is one example of the process which is carried out using the multi-window system. In this case, various applications are employed, including an application which inputs a circuit diagram that becomes the basis of the circuit to be designed, an application which edits the circuit construction on the input circuit diagram, an application which obtains characteristics of the circuit to be designed by simulation, and the like. By the inter-application link of such applications, it is possible to design the circuit while confirming the performance or the like of the circuit by simulation. More particularly, when an operator specifies a terminal on the circuit diagram while editing the circuit construction which is input and displayed, for example, it becomes possible to display a signal waveform obtained at the specified terminal.
The following two methods are conceivable as an application grouping method which specifies the combination of the applications which carry out the inter-application link.
According to a first conceivable application grouping method, a parent application which is common to the applications is made in order to specify the applications to be linked. Hence, each application is started from the parent application, and the linking applications are managed by the parent application. FIG. 1 shows a case where a parent application P is common to applications A and B. If the applications A and B are to be linked in FIG. 1, the application A or B to be linked to the other is specified via the parent application P.
On the other hand, according to a second conceivable application grouping method, the applications to be linked can be started independently, and the application to be linked to another is specified by an application name. FIG.2 shows a case where the application A can start the applications B having the same application name by specifying the application name.
But according to the first conceivable application grouping method described above, it is necessary to make the common parent application in order to carry out the inter-application link. For this reason, if a child application to be linked is newly made or an operating environment of the child application changes, for example, it becomes necessary to modify a mechanism that is used by the parent application to understand and recognize the child application, and there is a problem in that it is troublesome to make and manage the parent application.
On the other hand, according to the second conceivable application grouping method described above, if a plurality of applications having the same application name are started, a link must be made with respect to all of these applications in order to specify one of these applications, and there is a problem in that time is wasted by message exchanges brought thereby.
Furthermore, suppose that the grouping is to be made such that 2 groups of application pairs having the same inter-application link are formed. If the first conceivable application grouping method is employed in this case, it becomes necessary to make 2 parent applications, and there is a problem in that it is troublesome to make and manage the parent applications. On the other hand, there is a problem in that such 2 groups of application pairs cannot be made by employing the second conceivable application grouping method in this case.
Therefore, both the first and second conceivable application grouping methods described above cannot dynamically specify the combination of the applications which are to make the inter-application link in the multi-window system by a simple operation.